Heat transfer characteristic of a hydrothermal energy converter

A hydrothermal energy converter which harvests seafloor hydrothermal energy through thermoelectric technology is presented. The hydrothermal energy converter is designed for seabed long-term observation. This study is focused on the heat transfer characteristic of the converter. The heat transfer model of the hydrothermal energy converter was built through mathematical analysis. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique was introduced to estimate forced-convection heat transfer intensity between the converter and the hydrothermal fluids. Then we obtained the complete heat transfer model of the hydrothermal energy converter when it is deployed on a hydrothermal vent. Laboratory test was also conducted to validate the heat transfer mathematical model. Then the output power of the hydrothermal energy converter was estimated. The result shows that the output power of the hydrothermal energy converter is about 6~10 W which is enough to support many submarine devices.